New London ― The city has a unique partnership with a national social change organization to ensure everyone has “a fair shot at well-being.”

Massachusetts-based Full Frame Initiative is working with the city’s human services department to equitably disburse $3.4 million the city has allocated to the department from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Full Frame defines well-being as “the needs and experiences essential in combination and balance to weather challenges and have health and hope.”

Founded in 2010, Full Frame works to create systemic change by partnering with governments, non-profits and communities to establish cross-agency processes for human services.

The city first partnered with the organization last year in a $85,000 contract. The City Council renewed the contract Monday for $150,000, covering costs from Nov. 15 of this year to June 30, 2023.

Human Services Director Jeanne Milstein said the contracts amount to less than 1% of the total ARPA funds given to the department. Almost 80% of the renewal contract will go toward personnel costs and staffing. Milstein said there are three Full Frame staff members that work with the department 15 to 20 hours a week.

The human services department is limited in what it can do, with only a few staff members: Milstein, a coordinator, a bus driver and a secretary at the senior center.

Milstein said she first learned of Full Frame when she worked in New York for the state’s child welfare department. Milstein reached out to the organization as an effective way to account for “taxpayer money,” referring to the ARPA funds, and to ensure the department was making “sustainable and systemic change.”

From the beginning of the partnership, Milstein said Full Frame has been collecting data to account for the funds, determine what works and look at barriers people may face.

Tanya Tucker, Full Frame’s chief of national engagement and partnerships, said it has helped the city come up with an ARPA process that addresses equity, racism and those most marginalized in New London.

Tucker said Full Frame is still in the process of collecting data and identifying barriers, however one issue that continues to come up is transportation. Noticing this barrier can lead to more conversations about improving the infrastructure of public transportation. It could also mean allowing agencies to grant people with limited incomes the funds to fix their cars or tend to other immediate needs.

Milstein and Tucker call this type of funding “flex funds,” and such funds have been allocated to the Homeless Hospitality Center and the Southeastern Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence among others through ARPA grants.

Tucker said agencies are unaware of every immediate issue a person may face and most grants expect agencies to request funds for anticipated needs.

Full Frame also holds monthly meetings with agencies in the city that have received ARPA funds to talk about systemic issues and to create “a space of great problem solving,” said Tucker.

The city has allocated $1.4 million of ARPA funds. Milstein said priorities were housing, homelessness, food insecurity, immigration and seniors.

Milstein said the payoff is already showing. She said funding to the new Housing Resource Center by the Homeless Hospitality Center has helped prevent homelessness, and that she has never seen such coordination around food with FRESH New London and the Community Meal Center.

Tucker said Full Frame will work with the ARPA committee Milstein established to allocate the remaining $2 million, looking at issues to address.

The ARPA Committee members, in addition to Milstein, are Alliance for Living Director of Housing Frank Silva; Pastor Carolyn Patierno at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church; Organizing Director Maya Sheppard of Hearing Youth Voices; former City Councilor Curtis Goodwin, and communications and marketing professional Zakkyya Williams of Lawrence + Memorial Hospital.

Stephanye Clarke, program officer from the Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut, has recently joined the committee.

Milstein said housing would be a priority as well as youth programs.

Full Frame’s contract with the city will end at some point, but Tucker said the work is ongoing.

“I see our role as helping fuel a movement in New London and working with champions to bring this to every corner of how city government should work,” she said.

j.vazquez@theday.com